Alien Abduction!

Frankly it's the only reason I can offer for why this Blog has been so neglected.

Something cataclysmic happened in mid-January...the kids got sick, we got tired of the cold, pressure at the school became intense and we began to operate on a survival mode. Then Spring Festival finally arrived and we left for retreat on February 2nd. We returned on February 20th and had to be at the school the next day.

Now it's the end of Week 4 of this Term and finally I am ready to address this Blog and my readers (if any of you remain!)

We began sensing some change was in the wind for us back in early October. However, with being at the school, as a family 45 hours a week...there's just not much time to go hunting around or journaling for hours to "discover" the source of the change. As you know from this blog that we were blow away with a sudden (I simply cannot say this more eloquently than this) insistence, an intense and urgent burden to open our hearts again to adoption. Since the end of October we've been engaged is the rigorous sport of "paperchasing" for an International adoption! While I may not have an outward appearance of a world class athlete...I think I can say that in the sport of paperchasing...I've got game. (Sincere appreciation must also be duly noted and homage is due to our dear Nettie back There who has functioned like our "midwife" for this adoption, running down papers, scanning, overnighting packages, getting documents authenticated...we simply couldn't have been where we are at this moment without her love and support!)

We've been blessed by having team mates here since September. This has had a true settling effect on all of us as we feel far less isolated! We've had regular Sunday meetings in our home, great teaching, and the joys of stretching alongside others who are being pulled and pressed too.

By the time we left for retreat in February however, I felt like ground hamburger. Last year when we savored the rest at the retreat center in Northern Thailand, it felt like the sweetest blessing. This year...it felt like we just made it to the ER before we bled out! We were physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted. (Perhaps this is another reason that we've been so "quiet" and not on the blog?)

The first week of retreat we were at training in Hong Kong with our organization. The second and third weeks of retreat we holed up in Northern Thailand with about 15 other families just like ours. Kids from the West who live and serve all over Asia and their parents who come to this little retreat center to decompress. We had the added joy of being able to have some family with us as my parents flew all the way to Thailand to hang with us.

With the Grandparents on the scene Daddy and I enjoyed some great freedom to meditate and pray...taking MUCH needed time to be quiet and to seek answers and direction. For the last 2.5 years we've been about "getting Here" and trying to live...now that we're Here and our lives are more predictable (in a crazy, out of the world cross-cultural way)...we needed to take some stock and listen to gain some guidance about this feeling of "change."

After the two weeks we met for a "summit." (AKA, a lunch date with just the two of us!) And we talked about what was on our heart and what we'd been "hearing" over our two week retreat. We came away with some things written down on a piece of paper, about which we felt very peaceful and still motivated to pursue. Those items were:

1) To attempt to renegotiate our contracts with the school to allow us time, each afternoon, to meet with a private tutor and study Chinese. We believe that we're to be here for a greater time still and we simply MUST address our language deficiencies to be able to connect more and more with our neighbors.

2) To take our first steps of faith toward a "refuge home" for older orphans. We'd had some fantastic meetings with some locals who have some great networks of people involved in this issue here in our area. We've received nothing but encouragement from countless, unrelated sources...so, we're tentatively taking our first steps toward this project.

3) A re-commitment in our marriage regarding our primary calling...to orphans...through adoption, firstly, and to the idea of the refuge home, secondarily. (This particular issue has brought us hours and hours of prayer and discussion, searching out the Word daily and finding confirmations over and over again. It is in this realm that we see continue to experience the most profound and dynamic leading of the HS each day...)

We came back Here to some fabulous news on a few fronts. The first being that a local couple, who had sought us out for counsel several times over the last year and a half brought home their very own newly adopted daughter from a neighboring province! This was AMAZING! Adoption in simply not a part of the collective consciousness of the culture here. It's seen as scary, strange and sometimes shameful. We have had three families, local to us here, who have let us know that their hearts are drawn toward adoption. The first night we were home from Thailand, the new parents brought their baby girl to our apartment to tell us that "without the words you have spoken to us and by watching your family each day we would not have had the courage to adopt." This is perhaps one of the greatest highlights of our time Here so far!

Secondly, a local family that we've been lifting up for all the time we've been here has made a major "decision." The father of the family, who is the parent of one of the girls in our school, recently decided to join the Family! What an enormous joy that has been! The little girl just several months ago, while walking home from school with The Bug told The Bug "there is no God, why do you you talk like there is?" To which The Bug answered..."Oh yes there is a God, I know Him!"

We are pressed in on all sides...yet our joy is profound...we still need your covering, so desperately!

There are more wonderful things on the verge of breaking out...but we'll keep you in suspense on those fronts for just a little while longer.

Pressing on!